Yup, that’s right - I’m building a Social Network and so are you ! Stop laughing! Stop rolling your eyes! I have experience in building successful social networks, as I have been involved in the building of two. They have done pretty well. I now think it is time to invest my energy in producing a site that is not only a prime example of a balanced AJAX and DHTML implementation, but is also an example of how simple ideas are often the best.

The site will take the best aspects of many Web2.0 sites and incorporate it into one mother ship site. All the things we like about YouTUBE, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, NewsVine and many other sites will be stripped down to the core and assembled in the form of a new bright and magnificent beam of light, which is my new site.

It is my firm belief that Web2.0 and Social Networking sites are just labels added to an old concept – People like to connect. Whether it is through written words, indirectly through video or picture, by sharing interest, likes and dislikes, people like to connect. My concept is aimed at connecting people in the most fundamental of ways, using modern web technology (AJAX and DHTML) to make the experience that much more enjoyable.

Now, I can’t tell you exactly what my concept is, however, I can tell you that it is unique. I have Googled for many hours looking for a similar site and have found none! I’m pretty sure this is not because it is a bad idea – It’s a real light bulb-on idea. When it came to me, the after thought was simple – why did I not think of this before.

The first step is you. I am a lone African web developer. As such, I thought it would be great to share this experience with the world. So I have decided to blog the entire experience and outline the scripts, methods, problems and process of developing a social network here on my blog. Hopefully you think this is cool and decide to make your own site along with me.

If you go through the experience with me and have a fair knowledge of PHP and MySQL, you will be able to build your own Social Network using the same technology as Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon!!!

I would also like to mention, that by commenting on this post or the subsequent “I’m building a Social Network and so are you” posts, you will automatically be added to the list of site contributors under the “Honorable Mentions” section of the new site.

If you would like to keep up to date with the “I’m building a Social Network and so are you ” experience, please subscribe to our newsletter – Click here to subscribe.

We are going to get started now, so please sit tight and take notes. If you have any suggestions, concerns, ideas or advice, please drop a comment below.

Step One – Getting started

Ok, we have a concept, we know how the site will work and what it will do (These are the most important items):

1. We have hosting, a name, human resources and a brand.
2. We have access to NoboxMedia.com’s script library.
3. We have buy-in by the online community (Please leave a comment and/or forward this pages link to a friend to confirm)
4. We have $0 start up capital (Capital is over rated if you ask me anyway)

Looks like we have all we need to carry on.

Step Two – The plan

Its simple. We are going to develop the site in the following steps:

1. Determine core sections and technology required to make the site
2. We are going to build a core structure and template for the site, I’ll make this available for download in the next post – it’s good for building any site.
3. We are going to integrate all commonly used JS components (Editors, Modal Dialog Boxes etc). These will be the standard methods of communication information to the users, and yes, there will be a few AJAX ones.
4. We will start sourcing and grouping the AJAX technology required to build some of the cooler aspects of the site.
5. Integrating the various components.
6. The last part is the big one, its bringing all the above together. Now this is where the concept comes in. The way in which the components interact is what makes your site special. So start thinking how you can use the items listed below to build a unique, addictive site!
7. The last part is where we add additional methods of communicating information internally and externally to the site.
8. Sign off. You need to test, debug, test, debug and so on and so on until you are 110% sure you have a great, stable product.
9. We will now be ready to launch the first BETA (Great word) of the site. You will also need to work on a SEO strategy and getting your site out there, but I’ll help you with this when the time comes.

Step Three – The core sections

These are the main things your site will need to do. It will vary from site to site, but most of the components listed below will be required across the board:

1. Login and registration. We will need the simplest possible way of allowing people to register, login and tell their friends about the site. I like the way Facebook and StumbleUpon do it, so we will use that as a guide. We will need a contact imported (Pulls the email addresses of all your friends from Facebook, MySpace, Gmail, Hotmail etc into a listing, where you can choose to send them invites).
2. Photos. We will need two methods of uploading photos. The first being a client side application which resizes and compresses the photos before uploading them. This will save you a ton of bandwidth and will also improve the user experience by saving time. This will most likely be a JAVA applet. The second is a backup, should the user not have JAVA installed, we will use a multiple file upload script, which uploads many photos at a time. It will also need a progress bar, informing the user as to how far there upload has gone. We will also need to cover image manipulation – rotate, resize etc.
3. Video (This is not as hard as it sounds). We will make a facility for people to either pull video from YouTUBE or upload their own. Just a warning, for the latter, you will either need your own server or root access to the box (Linux) and you will need sufficient bandwidth, storage and processing capacity to facilitate the server side conversion of video.
4. Security. There are a number of things will need to cover from SQL injection to ensuring people are who they say they are and not annoying programs configures to decimate your site.
5. Profile. Whatever your site may do, if it is a social network, it will need to integrate information across users. There are many ways to do this and we will suggest, explain and recommend a number of them.
6. Communication. You will need to establish a sound method of communication with your users. We will cover automated emailing extensively.
7. We will bring in any additional, nice to have scripts that will make any of the above a better user experience.
8. This may not apply with everyone, but we will now look at ways of getting information from other sites. Like when submitting content to Digg, Facebook or StumbleUpon. We will also look at some automated methods of retrieving information – cool stuff!
9. The last step is incorporating all of the above into your concept. I’ll give samples and examples of bringing it all together, however, my concept is a secret and will only be revealed with the last post of this series – muhahahaha (Evil laugh).

So that’s it for now. I think we are off to a great start. I there is anything I’ve missed out, please drop a comment below. Start thinking of your concept and don’t forget to subscribe for the newsletter – so you can keep up to date with this tutorial!

Don’t forget to Digg this. Happy coding!